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October 17, 2017

1.6KPicks

Scream actress and outspoken feminist Rose McGowan has been at the forefront of the Harvey Weinstein sexual assault scandal, calling out others in Hollywood for their complicity and even getting blocked on Twitter for it, leading to #WomenBoycottTwitter.

But as all things white feminist do, these seemingly commendable actions ultimately found their way back to anti-Blackness through a stunningly and predictable lack of understanding of intersectionality.

In response to James Corden’s uncouth jokes about Weinstein’s violent sexual proclivities at the AmfAR gala, McGowan tweeted in outrage “This is white male privilege in action! Replace the word ‘women’ with the N-word! How does it feel?” (the tweet has since been deleted).

As Amelia Smalls wrote in response: “Black women exist, Rose. Black women and children who have a statistically higher rate of experiencing sexual assault knows how it feel, Rose. Black men are victims of assault too, Rose.”

This is what happens when we lack an understanding of intersectionality. We start conflating race and gender, as though there aren’t people whose realities consist of experiences affected by both constructs who are always erased in the process.